We arrived at about 0930 Panama time on Thursday morning, 0830 Galapagos time, then had to wait for our 'environmental hazard inspection' . This involved 8 people coming on board plus a diver taking photos of the underwater area.We passed the internal inspection which included asking about our procedures for dealing with rubbish, maintenance, oil spills etc.Unfortunately we learned today that we failed the underwater inspection, along with many other boats.Something is adhering to our hull which is deemed a risk to the Galapagos, most infuriating given we had a lift out and scrub off in St Lucia two days before we left in January.Rally Control has worked hard to find a solution.We will sail if there is any wind (motor if we have enough fuel) around the island to an agreed position 40. read more...

Up early. Another sea lion on the boat transom. He jumped off once he heard me afoot. Left for the airport at 9:00 AM to meet Janet's plane from mainland Ecuador. She had been traveling since 3:30 PM the day before and had spent Thursday night in the airport in Guayahill (a city on the coast. I know the spelling is wrong). In texting Janet, she indicated that she was in queuing hell, and didn't know if she'd get done in time to make the flight. If you've never stood in lines in South American airports, you haven't lived! Her plane touched down close to on time, and then Janet was back in a que again. In order to make sure that Janet didn't miss me at the airport exit, I held a sign that said 'Janet Fox.' When in Rome... And I use the term 'airport exit' loosely. Its a set of double doors. read more...

The sound of barking sea lions filled our ears as we anchored in pretty Puerto Baquerizo at the Island of San Cristobal. Soon with an extravaganza of Spanish speaking officials and two wonderful World ARC agents translating, Ricardo & Yvonne, plus divers to examine our boat's hull we were cleared into Ecuadorian Galapagos in short order. A waiting water taxi took us into shore and we walked to the charming Miconia Hotel's upstairs open-air restaurant complete with beautiful bay view for a Rally "happy hour". After two Cuba Libre's and an outstanding dinner of mixed seafood barbecue "doubled" on our table grill we really felt "happy".In the twinkle of anchor lights and the glow of shore lights we arrived back at CELEBRATE in what looked like a fairy land. What a great day!CathyNext,. read more...

Up at 5:30 AM. Sea lion still on transom. Looked up at me. Luckily we had blocked access to the cockpit with a recliner, or this sea lioncould have ended up in our cockpit. That would have been challenging to get rid of him then. About 10:00 AM we boarded a water taxi into town, then walked a mile or so to an 'interpretation' center, where the history of the Galapagos was adequately explained by pictures and wall charts. After that we made our way to a beach, where we snorkeled. The underwater topography was rocky with many fish. The water temperature was 82 degrees. While snorkeling, we came upon 2 large turtles, one with a 4 foot in diameter shell and another 2 1/2 feet. The larger turtle stopped me from following him by turning around and forcing me to retreat. Later we observed him. read more...

Thursday 13th February 201400:49:13S89:34:51WCrossed the Equator in style ….watching the latitude go to 00:00:00N/S was such a thrill, we toasted the sea with rum, gave thanks for our safe arrival and asked God to bless our families and loved ones. We gave the sea a polished pebble with PEACE engraved and a shell, the rest was a hoot, see below, Andrew is Poseidon and Harry his wife……..P1050097 P1050113 P1050140. P1050127 2 P1050131. read more...

Feb 13I am not a blogger, nor a sailor, yet here I am writing a blog and making my first blue water passage from Panama to the Galapagos Islands.I am from Alaska - the interior of Alaska - 350 miles from the coast. And although I have been to sailing school, done short sails in New Zealand, Alaska and Washington, bareboat chartered in the BVIs, even raced out of the Honolulu Yacht club (my former neighbor was the commodore at the time) nothing prepared me for the wonders of this trip."Light my Bowl" is the name I call my first night time discovery. I had the 1 a.m. watch. So in the dark I stealthily made it to the head, hoping not to wake my fellow crew. Keeping lights off, I pumped the toilet clear using sea water. To my absolute delight, the electric green phosphorescence lit up. read more...

"Some of the most perfect sailing we will ever see", Charlie says, as we left Las Perlas to start Leg 2 of the Rally and head for the Galapagos. It's always fun to see our colorful Gennaker flying.The Rally boats were all taking photos of each other and we have pictures of Skyelark of London, Festina Lente and Nexus.After a few days the wind left us and we had to start the engine and put the whisker pole out on the Genoa.On 2/9 we were sailing with Firefly, Clementina, Flomaida and Lluiton.Crossing the Equator was such a life highlight on Tuesday afternoon, 2/11, and was celebrated with a special bottle of champagne from our friends Jay & Laurie Ailworth and of course we ate Charlie's favorite brie cheese.Speaking of brie cheese, such great food was prepared by our crew member, Randy. read more...

At 12:44 AM we passed a gigantic rock called Roca Pateadora. 'Roca' means rock. By gigantic, I mean the size of giant asteroid a couple of hundred feet tall. If it was a 'small' rock, it wouldn't have been given a name. We've actually seen and been on islands that were smaller than this roca. Our electronic chart plotter had us in a depth of over 600 feet and 2 miles off shore from this rock. We were quite surprised, then, when our depth meter registered 49 feet. Bummer! We made a course change of 20 degrees,putting us further away from 'the rock.' If the depth had been 4 feet instead of 49, we'd have hit the underwater rocks (we draw a little over 5 feet), and we would have damaged the boat. If unlucky, we could have holed the boat and sunk. Now we were really awake! Kind of like how. read more...

We crossed the equator at 1935 local and duly appeased Neptune with a shareof our steak and chips and syrup pudding, champagne and a drip of whisky.To be honest, we’d finished dinner a bit earlier so Neptune’s very smallshare was cold! We had also altered course a little to ensure we crossedbefore I went off watch at 2000.Out ETA in Wreck Bay, not an auspiciousname, is about 0930 depending on the current.We are unashamedlymotorsailing because the wind is too weak and still not quite in the rightdirection.Our motoring hours are unimportant, except for the cost ofrefuelling, because we are not competing on this leg.We will be listed asDNS (Did Not Start) because we were still anchored in La Playita when therally left Contadora in the Las Perlas Islands.Our earlier than anticipated arrival. read more...